April <), 1874] 



NA TURE 



455 



class of bodies have not proper motions so great as many of the 

 bright stars. It may be remarked that two other kinds of motion 

 may exist in tlie nebuJLT?, and if sufficiently rapid, may be detected 

 by the spectroscope, i. A motion of rotation in the planetary 

 nebulae which might be discovered by placing the slit of the 

 instrument on opposite hmbs of the nebula-. 2. A motion of 

 translation in the visual direction of some portions of the nebulous 

 matter within the nebula, which might be found by comparing 

 the different parts of a large and bright nebula. 



Sir WiUiam Herschel states that "nebula? were generally de- 

 tected in certain directions rather than in others, and the spaces 

 preceding them were generally quite deprived of stars ; that the 

 nebula; appeared some time after among stars of a certain consi- 

 derable size, and but seldom among very small stars ; that when 

 I came to one nebula I found several more in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, and afterwards a considerable time passed before I 

 came to another parcel." * 



Since the existence of real nebuh-c has been established by the 

 use of the spectroscope, Mr. Proctor t and Prof D'Arrestt have 

 called attention to the relation of position which the gaseous 

 nebulse hold to the Milky Way and the sidereal system. 



It was with the hope of adding to our information on this 

 point that these observations of the motions of the nebulie were 

 undertaken. 



In the following list the numbers are taken from Sir J, 

 Herschel's "General Catalogue of Nebulae." The earth's 

 motion given is the mean of the motions of the different days of 

 observation. 



Chemical Society, April 2. — Prof Odling, F.R.S., in the 

 chair. — A paper on Sulpho-cyanide of Ammonium and Sulpho- 

 cyanogen, by Dr. T. L. Phipson, and a note On a Reaction of 

 Gallic Acid, by H. R. Procter, were read by the Secretary. 

 Mr. Procter finds that a mixture of gallic acid and potassium 

 arsenate, when exposed to the air, acquires a beautiful green 

 colour. — Mr. W. Noel Hartley then read a memoir On Cobalt 

 Bromides and Iodides, in which he described the method of pre- 

 paration and pri*iperties of these compounds ; they closely 

 resemble the corresponding chlorides. Fine specimens of the 

 different salts were exhibited by the author. — Mr. E. Neison 

 read a paper On the Distillation of Sodium Ricinoleate, and 

 Mr. C. H. Piesse a note On the Solubility of Plumbic Chloride 

 in Glycerin. — Mr. Kingzett read a voluminous communication 

 On Ozone as a Concomitant of the Oxidation of the Essential 

 Oils, Part I., and from his experiments he infers that the com- 

 pound produced during the oxidation of oil of turpentine is 

 neither ozone nor hydrogen peroxide, but a hydrated oxide of 

 turpentine. The last paper was On the Action of Chloride of 

 Benzyl on Camphor, Part II., by Dr. D. Tommasi. 



Royal Microscopical Society, April i. — F. H. Wenham, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — A paper On the Structure of the 

 Lepisma Scale, by Dr. Anthony, was read to the meeting, in 

 which the author showed that the two sets of markings were 

 upon opposite sides of the scale, the ribs being upon the under 

 side. — Mr. Wenham gave a demonstration of his method of 

 measuring tlie angular apertures of objectives, and explained 

 his mode of stopping out the extraneous rays which were 

 so frequently a cause of error. — Mr. S. J. Mclntire read a paper 

 describing the proboscis of a moth (believed to be a South 

 African species) which was furnished with a means of perforating 

 the nectaries of flowers. A mounted specimen was exhibited 

 under one of the Society's instruments in the room, and drawings 

 in illustration of the paper were placed upon the table. 



Linnean Society, April 2. — Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F. R.S., 

 in the chair. — On the Morphology of the Skulls in the Wood- 



* Philosophical Transactions, 1784, p. 448. 



t " Other Worlds than Ours," pp. 280-290. 



t " Astronomische Nachnchten," No. 1908, p. 190. 



peckers [Piad<v) and the Wrynecks ( Yungiiia:), by Mr. W. 

 Kitchen Parker, F.R.S. The present paper is one of a series in 

 hand in which the writer has endeavoured to work out thoroughly 

 the facial characters of certain types of birds in harmony with the 

 views given by Prof Huxley in his well-known paper on the 

 Classification of the Feathered Types (Zool. Proc. April 1 1, 

 1867). His own mode of research is much more like that fol- 

 lowed by the distinguished author of that paper than that pur- 

 sued by ornithologists proper. Without undervaluing their 

 excellent labours, there are many things which are seen first 

 and first understood by the embryologist and not by the zoologist 

 as such. Prof Huxley, in the paper just referred to, separated 

 the forms now under consideration into his group ColeomorphEe, 

 and gives {p. 467) a very valuable summary of their characters. 

 It was sought in that paper to bring into more or less zoological 

 contiguity such birds as have a similar structure of the facial, and 

 especially of the palatal, bones. Those group-terms, the Schi- 

 zognatha; (p. 426), the Dromteognatha; (p. 425), &c., are very im- 

 portant, all hough some of them are of very witle application. It 

 was the first thought of the author of this paper that the wood- 

 peckers would easily find a place amongst the non-passerine aerial 

 birds ; but examination of their palatal structures soon dispelled 

 this opinion. They are more allied to the Passerinte than most of 

 the Zygodactyles ; but it is to the embryos of that type, and not 

 to the adult, that they are related. The Passerinse themselves are 

 well termed jegithognathous (p. 450) ; this huge group is under 

 hand at present. Most of the non-passerine birds that seem to 

 come nearest to the woodpeckers have a very solid palate ; they 

 are desmognathous ; others, as the humming-birds and goTA- 

 suckers {Ci!/>ri»iii/^iis), are schizognathous ; whilst the swift (Cy/>- 

 selus] is as perfectly jegithognathous as the swallows. But the 

 woodpeckers retain that non-coalescent condition of the palatal 

 structure which we see in the lizards, very unlike that great fusion of 

 parts towards the mid-line which occurs in most of the higher birds. 

 They also have an unusally arrested condition of the palatal part 

 of the upper jaw-bone (maxillary), which is characteristic o I the 

 lizard and unlike the bird-class generally, and bones superadded 

 to the palate, vomers, septomaxillaries, &c. ; these are persist- 

 ently in paired groups, more in number, and altogether more 

 evidently embryonic and Lacertian, than the homologous parts of 

 other birds. The writer therefore seeks to introduce a new mor- 

 phological term for these hin^s as a group, having relation to 

 their face, namely, the term Saurognath^e ; for none of Prof, 

 Huxley's terms are appropriate for this type of palate. The 

 writer has worked out ihese parts in the nestlingof Yunx torijiiilla, 

 in four stages of Gecinus viridis^ in the young of l^icits ntinor^ 

 and in the adult of P. major, P. analis, Hemilophus Julvns, and 

 Piettmmits minittits, 



Manchester 



Literary and Philosophical Society, March 3. — Physical 

 and Mathematical Section.— h.\Wt.& Brothers, F. R.A.S., presi- 

 dent of the Section, in the chair. — Results of Rain-Gauge Ob- 

 servations at Eccles, Manchester, during the year 1873, ^y 

 Thomas Mackereth, F.R.A.S. 



March 10. — Ordinary Meeting. — E. W. Binney, F.R.S. , vice- 

 president, in the chair. — The chairman said that at a meeting of 

 the Society on January 9, 1872, in presenting to the notice of 

 the members specimens of fossil woods from the lower coal 

 measures of Lancashire, he stated " that from some examples in 

 his cabinet he was led to believe that Cotta's Mednllosa elegans 

 was merely the rachis of a fern or a plant allied to one." Prof. 

 Renault, of Paris, to whom we owe so much for his re- 

 searches in fossil botany, read a memoir before the French 

 Academy on January the 26th last, which has since been 

 printed in the Comptes Rendus, that completely confirms this 

 opinion. — Further Observations and Experiments on the Influ- 

 ence of Acids on Iron and Steel, by William H. Johnson, B.Sc. 

 At the last meeting of the Society Prof Reynolds, in 

 an interesting paper On the Effect of Acid on the Interior 

 of Iron Wire, appe.-vrs to think that Mr. Johnson did not 

 attribute to hydrogen any portion of the remarkable change 

 produced in iron and steel by immersion in acid. That im- 

 mersion in acid is the primary cause no one, Mr. Johnson 

 thinks, %vill dispute; but that hydrogen plays an important 

 part in producing these changes and is the cause of the bubbles, 

 the author showed in a paper read before the Society, March 4, 

 1873. The supposition that the absorption of hydrogen is the 

 sole cause of the change in the breaking strain, diminution in 

 toughness, &c., attendant on the immersion of iron in hydro- 

 chloric or sulphuric acids, and that there is no absorption of 



